Washington, DC. – (April 22, 2020) – The Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA), in partnership with Akamai Technologies, today announces the creation of the LESsor Sustainable Energy Network (LESSEN) program. The first-of-its-kind program provides meaningful, applicable educational programs for real estate landlords and data center operators with an aim towards developing successful, sustainable energy strategies. LESSEN will build on the success of CEBA’s Future of Internet Power (FoIP) initiative, which enabled a small group of leading, large data centers to take action and implement principles to increase sustainability by addressing an industry lag among small- to mid-sized data centers.

“Many large energy buyers do not realize the extent of their impact on energy consumption through data usage and the built environment,” said Mark Porter, Director of Supply Chain and International Collaboration at CEBA. “The LESSEN program is a timely development and we’re thrilled to have Akamai’s support to help accelerate awareness around energy consumption of two core infrastructure assets that businesses use – data and buildings.”

With demand for data-intensive technologies and services increasing, an estimated five billion Internet users, and growing adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT), data network energy consumption is on the rise. Energy conscious landlords – of both physical space and digital data centers – and their tenants are looking for an opportunity to decrease their carbon footprints. It is imperative to give each organization involved the tools necessary to decarbonize energy consumption in order to reduce emissions from leased spaces and create a zero-carbon internet.

Modern data centers can be a part of corporate efficiency,” said Mike Mattera, director, corporate sustainability, Akamai Technologies, Inc. “Since 2015, Akamai’s platform has used 61% less energy per gigabit of network capacity while still growing by over 182%. We want to share our lessons learned with data center operators and customers, inviting them to join us in reducing their energy consumption and carbon footprint. LESSEN will provide customers and providers with the education to do so.”

The 10-month LESSEN training will educate and activate landlords through fundamental education provided by market leaders. Virtual and in-person workshops include essential in-depth and project-specific education on: 

• Energy efficiency strategies and associated technologies
• On-site and off-site renewable energy generation
• Making a compelling business case for sustainability
• Contracting structures
• Economic considerations for project types 

Participants will have a unique opportunity to engage their peers and market leaders in a small-group setting through a mix of virtual workshops and in-person meetings with personalized support that will result in the development of a renewable energy procurement template to be used in future projects.  

As climate action and renewable energy commitments continue to increase, as of April 2020 over 850 companies have committed to take science-based climate action –  organizations will look to reduce their carbon footprints across leased spaces and data centers. Physical space landlords and data center operators that can offer facilities and services powered by renewable energy will have an opportunity to distinguish themselves in the market, drive business, and make a positive environmental impact.

Learn more here about how you can participate in the training, or serving as faculty or subject matter expert.